Another Chance
by dickard23
Summary: After the Search, Mai is working in her aunt's flower shop. An unlikely person convinces her to give Zuko a second chance. How far will this theme of forgiveness go? Will Zuko give his sister a second chance? Will she give him one?
1. Mai and Zuko

**102AG**

"It's time to get up," Mai said to Tom Tom. She had to bring him to work with her. They couldn't afford a sitter.

He was sleepy. It was only 7AM.

"I know, but you can sleep there."

She got Tom Tom washed up and into his clothes.

They had porridge and ash bananas for breakfast.

Tom Tom grinned when he saw food, and after they finished eating, they headed to their aunt's flower shop.

* * *

Three hours later and Mai was bored. She only had two customers all morning, and one was a guy who bought one rose for his wife every morning. It was a sweet gesture, but it didn't pay the bills.

Tom Tom was playing in the back with his ball.

Mai was about to close for a bit and take a break when a woman came into the shop. She assumed the woman was old. She wore a cloak like many older women did when they wanted to hide their wrinkles. The voice, however, told Mai otherwise.

"You'd rather be a flower shop employee than Fire Lady?" Azula squared up against Mai. "Now I wonder which one of us is crazy."

Mai groaned. "If you're hear to start shit, can you at least do it when Tom Tom is not in the store?"

"Believe it or not, I come in peace."

"I don't believe you," Mai had a stiletto in her sleeve just in case.

"Hear me out. I just want you to give my dumb dumb brother another chance."

"What's in it for you?" Mai folded her arms.

"Can't this just be my good dead for the decade?"

Mai drew her blade.

Azula raised her hands in defense. "Okay, okay. The sages are getting on Zuzu's case about getting married and making an heir. Granted, there are hundreds of girls who would be happy to marry him, but he loves you. If you don't take him back, then he'll marry some run of the mill girl that he doesn't care about, and we will have yet another crown prince or crown princess growing up in an unhappy home with parents who don't love each other. I think the past 100 years show why this is a terrible idea."

"So you want me to take your brother back to save some unborn baby?"

"Consider it your patriotic duty."

"Hell no!"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Then think about this. You love him, and if you don't give him a second chance, you'll always have to think about what if. You'll waste your youth working a dead end job serving nobody, and you'll have to read all about some brown nosed tramp having the life you should have had. You'll never forgive yourself. Heck, I'll buy all the flowers in this shop if you take him back."

"That's a lie!"

"Okay, the last part's a lie, but if you get back with Zuzu, he'll give your aunt enough to retire. You know she's old, and her knees are bad."

"How did you know about her bad knees?"

"I saw her at the market. She didn't recognize me and she started babbling about how she was glad to have her niece working for her since her knees are bad."

"What is in it for you?" Mai was still skeptical.

"I have my reasons, most of them are altruistic, but I have no interest in sharing them."

Mai raised a brow. "I'll think about it if you leave me and my family alone."

"Deal," Azula bought a black rose and tucked it in her hair before leaving.

* * *

Three days later, Mai was still unsure of what to do. She did love Zuko, and she did want to know how he was doing, but what if things don't change? What if he continues to make shady deals behind her back. She couldn't share a life with him if she couldn't trust him, but then again, she knew what she was getting into. Zuko was a good guy who had been taught many bad habits. She couldn't expect perfection right away. Maybe he did deserve a second chance.

"You've been thinking a lot," Mai's aunt told her.

"You could tell?"

"You've been frowning for the past three days. Usually, you just sport a pai show face (poker face)."

Mai sighed. "I ran into my ex's sister. She told me he wants me back, and I don't know what to do."

"It's a bit cowardly for him to send his sister. How are you supposed to talk to him about it?"

"I'm sure he didn't send her."

"Then she must be a good sister."

Mai was laughing in her mind. "She said he's getting pressure to marry, and she doesn't want him to mess up by marrying some random girl."

"Are you ready to marry him?"

"No."

"Would he wait for you?"

"I don't know."

"The only way you can find out is if you talk to him."

* * *

A week later, Mai came to the palace. She went to knock on Zuko's office door, but he was in there with someone.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not going to just choose a wife because you tell me to!"

"We need an heir!"

"I need my sanity."

Suki escorted Zuko's out of the office. She was surprised to see, "Mai? What brings you here."

"I was hoping to talk to Zuko."

"He's quite busy but ..."

"Who's out there?" Zuko came out to see, "Mai?"

"Is now a bad time?"

"No."

Suki frowned as Mai went into Zuko's office. The Fire Lord closed the door, leaving his head of security outside.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm not sure."

He pursed his lips. "Did you want to talk about your father?" He got her letter about the New Ozai.

"No. I didn't come here about him. I wanted to talk about us."

"I missed you."

"I know. I missed you two, but I don't want us to be spinning circles. I can't sit in the shadows wondering what kind of deals your making to keep the country afloat."

Suki's ear was pressed to the door. What are they saying?

She had to jump back when the servant came with Zuko's afternoon tea. The servant gave Suki and admonishing look and kept walking.

It was an hour before Mai left the office.

"I'll see you on Friday," Zuko said as Mai made her exit.

* * *

That Friday, Zuko took Mai to Capital City Steakhouse, the best restaurant in the city.

Before they could order, the waiter brought them a fine moon peach wine. "It's on the house my Lord."

On the other side of the restaurant, a woman eating alone observed the young couple. _That Kyoshi Whore-ior won't be Fire Lady after all!_


	2. Zuko and Azula

Zuko woke up happier than he had been in months. Mai was sleeping on his chest. They spent all night talking and cuddling, (Sokka would be the first to tell Zuko how lame he is to wait before getting into Mai's pants again), but it was amazing. He needed her. This job was more than he could handle alone.

The happy couple slept through the alarm bells that had been rung to wake them up. Zuko's appointments arrived, and Suki was waiting for him outside of his office.

"Where is he?"

Instead of sending a servant, she went to get him just to find Mai on top of him.

"It's time to get up," Suki yelled at them, but they continued to sleep, so she got a bucket of cold water and threw it at them.

"I'm under attack," Zuko screamed as he started to throw fire. "Suki?"

"You're running late."

"Oh!" He blushed as he scrambled to get dressed. Mai wondered if Suki should have a key to his bedroom.

"I'll be waiting at your office."

"Does she usually come in here when you're only in your boxers?"

"What?" Zuko asked, having paid little attention to the scene. "Do you know where my shoe is?"

Mai shook her head. Ten minutes later, they were at a meeting with his intelligence officer.

"The New Ozai changed their meeting location, which isn't surprising since Mai refused to join her father. There have been whispers about some kind of attack, but nothing specific enough to do anything." They didn't know who, what, where or when exactly, just possible theories.

"Until we know otherwise, we should keep careful watch on any diplomats and foreign allies. It's one thing if I have to fight assassins in my own country. If my allies get attacked here, they might suspect I'm involved and that could destroy our peace alliances," Zuko said authoritatively.

"Is there anything in the rumors about Azula?" Suki questioned.

"No," the officer told her.

"Has the search for her yielded anything?" Zuko questioned.

"No."

"She's missing?" Mai questioned.

"You would know that if you hadn't run off," Suki retorted.

"She ran away after we found our mother. She was rather upset when she learned that Ursa had her memories erased on purpose."

"She what?" Mai questioned.

Suki could tell Mai had planned on saying something else, but she didn't.

It wasn't until after the meeting that Mai said, "Zuko we need to talk."

"You're not dumping me already."

"Not that kind of talk."

"Oh, go on."

"I saw your sister a couple of weeks ago."

"WHAT?"

"I didn't realize she was missing. I hadn't seen any fliers or heard anything."

"Oh. I was afraid if I publicized it too much, I might end up siccing unscrupulous bounty hunters on her. I was hoping she would be found covertly."

"She came to my aunt's shop," Mai said with a sigh.

"Why would she go out to the middle of nowhere? No offense."

"It is in the middle of nowhere. She came to talk to me. She wanted us to reconcile."

"Can you repeat that?"

"She wanted us to get back together."

Azula did something nice? "But that would be nice of her."

"She said it was her good deed for the decade."

"What interest did she have?" Azula always lies.

"She wouldn't say, but she insisted it was mostly altruistic."

"Mostly?"

"I don't know. Look, I saw her. For what it's worth, she wasn't crazy or anything, and I said I would think about it if she left my family alone. I was more creeped out than anything else."

"Is she why you came back?"

"No. You're why I came back, but she wasn't wrong."

"What did she say?"

"She said that we loved each other, and if I didn't come back, you would eventually marry some girl you didn't love for the sake of the Crown, would have an unhappy marriage and would raise a miserable crown prince all while I worked a dead end job and cursed myself for being too stubborn."

"That almost sounds sincere."

"I don't know what she wanted other than for me to come here."

Zuko sighed. "She didn't say where she was going."

"No, and I didn't even look to see which way she went. She looked well fed and healthy. I imagine she's indoors and not roughing it. With whom, I wouldn't know."

"I thought she might have starved to death in that forest. She ran off without any supplies."

"She's a trained survivalist. She can kill any animal and identify safe foods from the poisonous ones. It would be pretty hard for her to starve."

"I suppose so, but I thought she'd be too crazy to remember her training. She jumped off Appa forcing the Avatar to rescue her with his glider."

"What happened next?"

"She ran away."

"She wasn't attempting suicide. She knew Aang would save her and exploited his kindness. That's rational, cold and twisted, but rational."

"You didn't see her."

"I'm not saying she was of sound mind. I'm saying her mind wasn't completely broken. Part of it worked then, and I imagine more of it works now."

"Do you think she'll ever get better?"

"What's better?" Mai questioned.

Zuko didn't know.

* * *

Suki was livid when she heard Mai had spotted Azula. "How could she say nothing?"

"She didn't know Azula was missing. It's not like I remembered to tell her."

"She couldn't figure that out."

"Azula was never charged with anything. It's not like Mai was expecting her to be in prison." Azula was only at Boiling Rock because the secure asylum wasn't done yet.

After Zuko went on to do other work, Suki questioned Mai's loyalty. "Whose side on you on?"

"The side with the dancing koala sheep. What kind of question is that?"

"You were all too happy to leave, and you come back after you see Azula."

"You think I'm a spy?"

"Are you?"

"She doesn't need me to spy. She seemed to know plenty of the Crown's affairs, which means she came to the palace without you knowing it or she has informants in the palace. Either way, it speaks more to your (in)competency as a security chief than it does to my loyalty."

* * *

A blue flame burned, turning the letter to ash. Things were progressing just like Azula wanted them to. With Mai and Suki distracting Zuko with their tit for tat, Azula had a good opportunity to make her move.

Ten minutes after she destroyed her correspondence, she met with Mai's father.

"Are you sure this is a good time?"

"This is a perfect time. Zuzu has never been very decisive. With two girls vying for him, his poor cherry sized brain will be too distracted to focus." Her brother always did let matters of the heart cloud his oversized head. Azula never had such a problem.

Later that week, Azula met with the New Ozai for the first time.

"Zuko's government is fragile. The nobles seem to change their mind about him every month. All we need is one solid strike, and the nation is ours." It was time for a game of thrones.

Azula was more charismatic than Mai's father. She had an energy that was impossible to escape, like a volcano erupting. She would just dominate anything that got too close. She made them think she was appealing to their logic, but she was really toying with their emotions. They were like toy soldiers in her hands. The raw energy flowing through her veins was addicting.

Their plan was to siege the palace in three weeks time, just when the drama between Suki, Zuko, and Mai would be coming to a head.

* * *

14 Days Later

Zuko was desperate. If Mai and Suki weren't exchanging thinly veiled insults, they were glaring at each other, bumping each other, spilling drinks on each other; Mai claimed she had a hand spasm.

"Why are they acting like this?"

"Don't you see?" Ty Lee told him. "They both want you."

"But Suki and I are just friends. She's with Sokka."

"When't the last time you've seen Sokka here?"

Zuko had a brilliant idea. "I know what we need."

He invited the Gaang for a party. Suki will remember how much she loves Sokka, and Mai will be able to relax.

Of course, ideas are always better in Zuko's head than they are in the real world.

Sokka did arrive, with Aang and Katara, but it did little to help the bickering.

"What's going on Sparky?" Sokka punched Zuko's arm.

"Mai and Suki keep fighting."

"Why?"

Oops. What do I tell him? "Well, Mai saw Azula, but she didn't capture here and ..."

"Azula's out there!" Sokka went nuts. "How could you let her escape?" He demanded to know.

"No one told me she was an escapee," Mai snapped. "Why would I try to take her hostage for no reason?"

Katara started freaking out. "What if Azula's leading The New Ozai?"

Aang thought they should go looking for her right away.

"We sent scouts, and they thoroughly searched the last place she had been seen," Zuko reminded them. "No one has seen her, well not that anyone will admit to."

* * *

Before they could strategize, Zuko got information from his military.

"What is it General Jing?"

"It's your sister my Lord. She lead some kind of ambush."

Suki knew it. "I knew it!"

"Who did she attack?"

"The New Ozai."

That can't be right. "Say that again."

"She attacked The New Ozai. She may have killed most if not all of their members."

"What?" Mai gasped.

"Oh your father's alive. I should have started there, but he's hospitalized. Azula got him good."

"Why would she ..." Zuko fainted.

* * *

After he came to, they all went to where the battle had been fought.

"What is that awful stench?" Katara questioned.

"Burning flesh," Mai told her. You don't get to be friends with Azula without learning that stench.

"We believe the fight was last night," the general told them. "It seems that Azula may have infiltrated them just to kill them all."

"She did this alone?" Aang was looking at the destroyed house and burned trees. There must have been a lot of deaths.

"She had informants in the area, but they said they got here after the fighting was over. She insisted on going in alone."

"This has to be some type of trick," Katara told him. "No way would Azula attack a group that wanted to put her on the throne."

The general took them to the morgue. There were 27 dead men, ages 16-46. They were burned, struck with lightening, and one had his head cut off. It was totally nasty.

"Does this look like a trick to you?"

Katara frowned.

"Where is she now?" Aang questioned.

"She fled the scene," the General said. "She told her informants to take care of this, and she bolted. They told us everything."

"Who are they?" Zuko questioned.

* * *

An hour later, they were talking with Ruon Jian and Chan.

"You were her informants?" Mai questioned.

Chan shrugged. Ruon Jian did the speaking. "She figured we'd fit in fine since we had a supposed grudge against Zuko. Chan would just rant about how Zuko was a jerk and trashed his house, and the next thing we knew, we got invited to a meeting."

"What was in it for you?" Zuko wanted to know.

"She'd said you'd pay us if we turned up anything important."

Of course she did.

"Did you?"

"We got her to the new hideout."

"Your patriotic duty wasn't enough?" Sokka questioned.

"Hell no," Chan told him. "My dad still won't let me have parties in that house."

"If it makes you feel any better, Zuko trashed his own house too that night," Mai told them.

Zuko scoffed. "Where is my sister?"

"We don't know," Ruon Jian told her. "She didn't want to go back. She said there was nothing for her at the palace."

"So Azula played match maker for Zuko, got rid of all his enemies, and then decided to run for it instead of just coming back," Suki questioned.

"Yes," Ruon Jian told her. "I think it was her way of saying goodbye. I don't think she ever plans on coming back."

The more Zuko learned about his sister, the more she confused him.

"Maybe we should just turn back," Zuko said.

"And leave her out there?" Sokka questioned.

"If she wanted to kill me, she just ruined a perfect opportunity, and if she wants to go that badly, maybe I should just let her."

The others looked for her that evening, but there was nothing. She vanished without a trace.

* * *

Zuko was about to leave the next morning when Ruon Jian stopped him.

"I lied to you. I did know where Azula went."

"What?"

"She said to tell you she left, but she couldn't leave. She's in the hospital."

"Why are you telling me now?"

"It was just a minor wound before, but it got infected. She's probably going to die."

All Zuko could feel was numbness, from his head to his heart.

* * *

An hour later, Mai and Zuko were in the hospital.

"We're here for the princess."

"She's not here," the receptionist told them.

"She's probably checked in under the name Rei," Mai told her.

"Oh we have a Rei."

"How did you?"

"It's the name she had on her fake id."

"She has fake id?"

Mai shook his head. "We'll talk about that later."

Azula was unconscious. She looked terrible. Her skin was pale. She was sweating, and she had a deep scratch on her face."

The infected wound was on her stomach. They put some type of topical cream on it, but it didn't seem to help.

"Can she hear us?" Zuko questioned.

"I don't know."

Of course, Zuko didn't tell anyone where he was going. They eventually checked the hospital, and they saw Zuko sitting there looking frozen, and Mai sitting on the edge of Azula's bed.

"Most people are going to think you were stupid, that you had no business trying to take on 30 fighters all by yourself, but I know you better than that. You had no intention of leaving that fight alive." How could someone so talented just throw it all away?

"Is she ...?"

"She's still breathing, but the doctor's said that if they don't get her infection under control soon, she'll be dead this time tomorrow."

All Azula could see was blurriness. Her body was too tired to put it all together. She heard voices but no words, saw colors but no people.

Katara thought there was something odd about Azula. "If she was stabbed in the stomach, why is there a rash forming on her neck."

She showed the doctors.

"It's spreading."

"I can see that, but the rashes should be radiating from the stab wound if that's what's infected."

Katara took a closer look and then used her bending to give her an examination. "This isn't an infection. She's been poisoned."

"How?" They were very careful with the food.

"My guess is the blade. If the sword was poisoned tipped, the poison could have gone into her bloodstream.

It appeared to be white jade poisoning. They gave her bacui berry juice, and observed her through out the night.

* * *

The next morning, she was cogent. "What are you doing here?" Zuko had come to the hospital early. Everyone else was still asleep.

"You're in the hospital," Zuko told her.

"Duh! I can see that. What are you doing here?"

"Ruon Jian told me where to find you."

"He should have kept his mouth shut."

"You were dying. What else was he to do?"

"Keep his mouth shut. It wasn't his business what happened to me, and it wasn't yours either."

"You should be glad I came. If I hadn't, Katara wouldn't have been able to save you."

Azula groaned. "I should have known that witch was behind this."

"You act like saving your life was a bad thing. Someone poisoned you."

Azula rolled her eyes. "I poisoned me you idiot! And you had to come and ruin everything!"

"What? Why would you...?"

"You want to know why? I'll tell you why. My whole life, I've done nothing but train for war and study politics, enduring years of Ozai's abuse and lunacy with the belief that it would all be worth it, that some day I would be paid in kindness. Instead, you managed to take from me everything I ever had or wanted by doing nothing your whole life just to pick the winning side at the end, left me to rot in a cell, and even though I escaped, I still had nothing. I'm a war machine without a war, a warrior without a cause. There's nothing for me anymore, and I can't even have an honorable death without you getting in my way."

"But you saved me and ..."

"I did it to save the country you idiot. We can't afford another war and if you let foreign relations slip any worse, the Fire Nation will implode. I had to stop them before they could actually achieve anything. I was supposed to die in battle, but they were so bad at fighting that all I got was a flesh wound. I took the poison, so that people would think my wound got infected, and it should have worked, but you had to show up and play hero. Just do me a favor and go away."

"But I'm your brother."

"Some brother you are. Where were you when father made me train on broken glass so I would be faster? Where were you when father beat me with a cane soaked in acid on Day of the Black Sun? Oh yeah, you not only ran away, you gave Ozai a reason to retaliate against me. 'By the way, Azula shot the Avatar.' Why would you tell him that unless you wanted him to kill me?"

"I didn't realize he would ..."

"What? React. He burned you for speaking out of turn, what do you think the penalty was for lying to him?"

Honestly, Zuko never thought about what would happen to her as a result. He just wanted to get back at his father.

"Azula ... I'm sorry."

"Apology not accepted. You've been nothing but trouble my whole life. I'm better off alone."

"But what about our family?"

"What family? I have you for a brother, which is really just a joke, an uncle who has always hated me and a mother who went out of her way to forget I ever existed. I have no family. At the end of the day, I'll never have anyone, and you'll never understand what that's like, so can you please just go."

"Azula I ..."

Blue flames set fire to the room, right where he had been sitting, forcing him backwards.

The nurses pulled Zuko out of the room and put out the flames. "It's best you just leave."

* * *

"You managed to get her so angry that she set the room on fire before I woke up," Mai told her boyfriend. "That is impressive."

"She took the poison on purpose."

"I'm not surprised," Mai told him.

"What?"

"Azula's too smart to go into a fight like that alone if she planned on making it out alive. Even if she had been stabbed with a poison blade, she would have figured that out, and if she didn't say anything about it, then she didn't want to be treated. It's not that surprising that when her plan failed, she just took the poison and decided to let everything think it was an infected stab wound."

"I just don't understand why?"

"What's to understand? She was raised in a war culture where it is heroic to die in battle but shameful to come home a failure. She spent her whole life preparing for a world that will never be, and given the chance to die a hero or live a failure, it was an easy choice, and it's not an uncommon choice. Why do you think war veteran suicide is at an all-time high? These men don't know how to live as civilians. They were trained to pillage and burn everything. There's no place for them in this world, so they try their hand at the next one. There are plenty of warriors on the other side."

It was a bitter pill to swallow, realizing Azula felt more at home with her dead grandfather and cousin than with her living family. She'd rather die than come back home. Zuko longed for the days when they were best friends. He was afraid he'd never get another chance.


	3. Zuko and Azula II

Azula wasn't allowed any visitors. The nursing staff did not want her to have any more outbursts.

"What are you going to do?" Aang questioned. They knew Azula set the fire, but not that she had poisoned herself.

"I don't know. She won't willingly come home, and I don't want her to burn down the palace trying to escape, but she can barely walk. I can't just leave her here."

Azula would eventually make a full recovery, but she had been severely weakened from the poison.

"Does she have anywhere to go?"

Zuko shook his head. "Not that I know of."

Aang suggested Iroh, but Zuko vetoed. "She'll definitely burn down his house." She might even lock him in before she does it.

Unfortunately, there were very few firebenders who could handle Azula. "Who else could handle her, other than Jeong Jeong?"

Azula didn't even know him, and once she learned he was a friend of Iroh's, she might burn down his house out of spite. "She doesn't fit anywhere," which of course was her biggest complaint. "I don't know what to do."

No one else had any brilliant ideas either. Where do you send a war criminal turned vigilante hero who has a death wish and hates pretty much everyone?

"I think it's safer if she's alone," Mai said.

"For who?" Suki questioned.

"Everyone. You saw what happened when she felt boxed in. She'll fry anyone who tries to contain her. She managed to stay out of trouble on her own. Maybe she should just be left alone."

Zuko couldn't do that. "What if she got poisoned again?"

"That could happen in the palace too. It's not much safer."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Suki complained.

"If she's in the palace, she's easy to find. If no one knows where she is, then it's hard for someone to poison her."

Zuko and Mai talked privately afterwards.

"You don't think she'll try again if we leave her alone."

"I don't think the location will make any difference. There's an abundance of ways for her to kill herself in the palace. Either she finds something to live for or she doesn't. I doubt dragging her home kicking and screaming will do anything other than give her more of a reason to try and jump off the roof."

"So what I give up?"

"This isn't your fight Zuko. It's hers. Only she can win it, and only she can accept allies. I don't want her to die anymore than you do, but you'd have to be a fool to think you can watch Azula 24/7."

Zuko knew she was right, but he had to do something.

* * *

The Fire Lord got advice from an unlikely source. "Sparky, let's go get beers."

"You're not even old enough to buy beer here." In the Fire Nation, the age was 16.

"Good thing you can pardon me!"

Zuko rolled his eyes. 20 minutes later, they both had pints.

Toph took a big swig. "So what's the game plan? Wait out Azula until she comes home?" Eventually, she'll get sick of the hospital.

"I don't know what to do with her."

"She seems self sufficient. Why not cut her loose?"

"She's better, but she's still not well."

"Peh. Most of the adults I work with aren't all there either. I doubt she's much worse than Kuei."

"It's not the same. Azula doesn't trust anyone. I don't know who's care I can leave her in."

"Why doesn't she trust anyone?"

Zuko took a sip before answering. "She was raised to wage a war just to get jailed for waging it. Everyone in her life either turned on her or left her behind."

"You're still here."

"She doesn't want me here. She told me to stay out of her life."

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"No? Why would you say that?"

"It sounds like you're only sticking around because you feel obligated to, not because you want her in your life. If she were well, we wouldn't be having this conversation because you would have already gone home. You can't expect her to welcome you with open arms when all you feel for her is pity. She's much too proud for that."

Toph was right. Azula wouldn't accept what he was offering because what he was offering just wasn't good enough.

Azula had more energy than she let on. She took her bed sheet and tied it to the bed frame, using it as a rope as she lowered herself out of the window. The port was about three hours away. From there, Azula could stow away on a boat to Fire Fountain City.

An hour after she ditched the hospital, the Gaang was out looking for her.

Aang took Appa and went north. Toph and Suki went east. Mai and Zuko went west, and Sokka and Katara went south.

"For someone who supposedly couldn't walk," Toph complained, "she sure moved pretty quickly."

"Azula always lies," Suki told her.

"So Zuko said." Maybe he was selective about what he wanted the truth to be.

"You don't believe him?"

"I'm sure he believed it, doesn't mean he was right."

When Azula first saw Appa, she thought he was a big cloud, but then he moved too quickly through the sky.

"Of course, Zuzu sent his stupid friends after me."

When Aang didn't find Azula, he circled back around.

"Go away. Don't come this way," Azula said as if he would hear her and then change course.

She decided down the cliff was the fastest way out of sight, so she ran towards it.

Aang didn't see her, but Toph did. She used her earthbending to hasten the hike she and Suki made following Azula's tracks.

"She's going to fall off that cliff."

Toph raced to stop her. Azula leaped off the cliff, just to see that it extended, forcing her to land back on the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Toph snapped. "You were about to go off the edge."

Another fool. "That was the whole point you Blind Bumpkin."

"Do you have a death wish or something?"

Azula's silence said it all.

"Whatever you're going through, death is not the answer."

"What would you know? Aren't you like 10 years old?"

I'm not that short! "I'm 14!"

"Fourteen year olds don't know anything."

"Didn't you conquer a country at 14?"

"And where did that get me?"

"So what? You lost a war and now you're going to just die."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me!"

"No one ever's expected anything from you. Your parents probably just kept you inside on fluffed pillows. Your biggest chore was probably just putting your clothes on the right way."

Toph frowned. Her parents were just like that. "I made my own expectations. There was nothing for me at home."

"There's nothing for me on Earth."

"You have an entire palace!"

"It's just a gold plated prison. My whole life I've been shifted from one cage to the next, and at the end of the road, there's nothing at all."

"Your brother is worried about you."

"My brother has a guilt complex. He likes feeling guilty, so he can tell himself he has a conscious. Once he feels like he's done enough, he forgets all about you and moves on. I know he's just going to leave in the end like he always does. I'd wish he'd just hurry up already."

"Maybe you should give him a chance."

"I gave him nothing but chances, and he blew every one. I warned him when Ozai planned on killing him and he called me a liar. I got him a boat when he got banished, just for him to complain it wasn't new enough. I got Dad to end his banishment, and he stabbed me in the back as payment. Zuko's out of chances, and I'm out of time."

Before Toph could stop her again, Azula used her flames to vault off the cliff. Azula only saw one chance at freedom, so she took it.

Beneath the cliff was a canal. Aang and Katara searched it thoroughly, but they couldn't find her body.

"It's possible she got pulled into the ocean before we got there."

"Or she could have swam away," Zuko said.

"Maybe," Katara said, but she was pretty sure Azula was just dead.

It was all too much for Toph to handle. She walked off alone.

Sokka followed her. "This isn't your fault."

"I know it's not," she told him, even if it was a bit of a lie. "But it doesn't make me feel any better."

"She was crazy."

"That's just it. I don't think she was crazy. I think she just gave up."

"Sane people don't jump off cliffs."

"They do when they think it beats the alternative."

* * *

Azula woke up with a horrible cold.

Somehow, she was inside of a barn house somewhere.

"Oh good you're up," the woman said to her. "My husband was about to cross the canal when he saw you fall off that cliff. It's lucky he was there to save you."

Damn. _How can it be so hard to die?_

"It's lucky alright."

"What's your name?"

"Rei."

"Hi Rei, I'm Fei Fei."

"Thank you for taking care of me."

"Of course. If my daughter fell off a cliff, I hope someone would help her too."

"Hopefully she has better luck."

"You seem to have pretty good luck considering. You got another chance."

She said it so casually, but she really had no idea. It was as if Azula had nine lives. She had already used four of them. She best be more careful with the rest.

Zuko refused to declare his sister dead. There was no body. There wasn't any blood found at the scene. He had flyers sent throughout the region and in every port, asking the public for help.

Fei Fei's husband saw one of the flyers and showed it to his wife. "Do you think this is Rei? Maybe she has amnesia from the fall."

"She could," he agreed. At dinner, she asked Rei about her family.

"My father's in jail, and my mother died in childbirth." It was partially true.

"You don't have a brother?"

"Do you think I have one?"

They showed her the flyer.

"As far as I'm concerned, Azula drowned that day."

"You don't want to at least tell him you're alive."

"No. He won't leave me alone. If I'm dead, he'll have to let go."

Unsure of their loyalty, Azula left the next day.

She knew there would be flyer all over the port, which would make it hard for her to catch a boat. Instead, she walked away from the port, hoping to get into a city large enough for her to blend in with the crowd.

* * *

Two days after Azula left, Zuko got a letter confirming she was alive, and she was still reluctant to come home.

He couldn't wait around for the military to fail him at finding her. He had to find her himself.

Eventually, he got a break. Someone reported seeing her in Caldera City. Zuko ordered the police to stand down, and he went to find her himself. She had been camping in the woods, foraging for fruits and meat and stealing whatever else she needed from stores in town.

She was on her way back to camp when Zuko appeared.

"Not you again."

"Just give me five minutes and if you want me to leave, I'll go."

"You get two minutes," she told him with her arms folded over her chest.

"I know I haven't been much of a brother to you, and I don't have any excuses, but I think we should start again. We could have been just fine without Ozai for a father. He pitted us against each other since day one because if we had united, we would have taken him down ages ago. You do have a place, in this family and on this Earth, if you want it."

"What could I possibly do?" she scoffed.

"I do need a Director of Intelligence, and you figured out more about the New Ozai than my entire agency put together."

"You would trust me with a spy network?"

"I'm willing to give you a second chance, if you're willing to give me one."

Azula realized it was the best deal she was ever going to get. "But if this is some type of hoax, I swear to Agni."

"It's no hoax."

"Good because I'm tired of camping."

"How did you pay for all this stuff?"

"Two finger discount."

"You told them you only had two fingers?"

"I stole it, dum dum."

"Azula!"

"What? I was broke."

Zuko paid for all the stuff she took before they went home.


	4. Azula and Her Room

Zuko sent a message to the palace before he returned home.

_I'm calling off the search for Azula, immediately. We will be back on Wednesday._

He never said what actually happened to inspire him to end the search. Mai wasn't sure if he and Azula were returning or if the "we" included someone else. With Zuko, you never really could tell. He kept his messages short, but often times they did not have the pertinent information.

AAA

Suki thought that the "we" referred to his crew. She was not ready to see Azula walk into the palace right behind her brother.

"You room is the way you left it … well almost." It had been quite a mess. He had to have the mirror replaced and all of the glass cleaned up.

It was weird walking the halls without a dictator in command. Azulon ran a tight ship, Ozai an even tighter one. Azula couldn't see Zuko commanding his group of whore-iors much less anyone else.

The artwork was militaristic and menacing. "You really should redecorate this place. It looks like a gilded prison."

Zuko didn't disagree. "I used to have nightmares over that portrait of Sozin."

"I convinced Ty Lee the palace was haunted. She couldn't sleep here without a light on until she was 11."

"You always were such a bitch," Mai told her after overhearing Azula's confession.

Azula rolled her eyes. "You helped me, Miss. I pretended to be the ghost of Fire Lady Ilah."

Mai forgot about that. "That was one of our better pranks."

"Remember when we switched the sugar and the salt at the royal academy. That was my favorite prank."

"It took them a week to figure out what was wrong. Lunch was nasty every day."

"But I had the servants bring me lunch."

"And you didn't bring us any."

"Oops."

AAA

Azula got back to her old quarters. She had to fight the urge to rip everything off the walls.

The room had been the same since she moved into it when she was nine years old. There was so much regret imbedded in the red walls.

Azula spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to make it more inviting.

_I think I'll paint it yellow._

_Maybe I'll get a fire puppy._

_What if I got a little fountain on the balcony?_


End file.
